this is sort of interesting speculation below. interesting about abrupt quitting of Bill Hawks who was in charge of BSE regulatory oversight. not seen that much in the papers.

"I'm wondering how we can get the press to report on the fact that the USDA and Johanns clearly knew they had another positive test at the Thursday hearing but never told anyone. They let the charade go on, and then waited till the best/worst possible time to call a phone in press conference - Friday night - to release it.This all precedes the abrupt quitting of Bill Hawks who was in charge of BSE regulatory oversight. Did he know before he quit. My feeling is that they knew back in November that this animal was positive, and have been covering it up. At some point, I suspect, they decided it was too dangerous NOT to come clean. I think they had this all timelined, and pulled together the meat heads (sic) in St. Paul to clue them in and line them up, at least some of them."